Bringing life, vibrancy and real-world connections to learning

By Allie Hemmings, Takapuna Normal Intermediate School

We have six specialist subjects that students rotate through during the year. They spend 10 half-day sessions with two subjects (once a week, for 10 sessions), before moving on to the next pair of subjects.

Two years ago, Digital Technology paired with Performing Arts and we created some short films. Last year, we joined Materials Technology and spent the first four of these 10 sessions focusing on building up skills in our respective subjects. For DT, this consisted of learning block coding with Makey Makey and micro:bits, robotics with mBots, and a session on electronics (using a breadboard, micro:bit and adapter). For Materials, the focus was on material functions and associated tools, with plastics and metals, and also some CAD for lasering print a ruler.

After these four sessions, we combined our teaching groups to start our joint project, where they had to design and build a fully functioning remote controlled robot, bringing together the skills learnt in both subject areas to meet a given brief.

components, and code the controller and robot using micro:bits. This broke the project down into five full-day sessions, which would take students through the whole technological design process, including prototyping, building and testing their design. A Google Slidedeck was also set up to capture all of the evidence of the process.

Generally, it worked really well. Students were engaged and learned how to develop an outcome that was both fit for purpose and met a given brief. As teachers, we learnt a lot along the way, particularly as neither of us had done any electronics before. We continually had issues in the final stages of each rotation, as we often couldn’t get the motors to come to life. Through a lot of trial and error we managed to get a 70-80 per cent of working robots by the end of the year, which was far improved from our first rotation of robots. We had to Google a lot of answers about breadboarding, and what the likely issues would be. Even down to buying rechargeable 9V batteries to run the robots, which we thought would be a better use of funds, wasn’t successful as they can lose their charge extremely quickly. This is ‘insider’ knowledge that we could really have used at the outset of this project.

Self taught

day to the next our lesson structure was improving, and from one rotation to the next it was becoming more efficient, structured, and more successful.

Design process

We chose this particular project by looking at a few ideas online to get the kids building something in Materials Technology and embedding the coding knowledge that we were learning in DT. We found a tutorial on Instructables (instructables.com) that had a DIY robot made out of a tissue box. We adapted this to create a brief whereby learners would design and build the physical robot structure, build the electronics

We experienced other equipment issues, such as the micro:bit battery packs breaking and, while I taught myself to solder to fix these, for what appeared to be no logical reason, the repaired ones wouldn’t power the microbits. It turns out that the prewired connectors we had bought on AliExpress were opposite polarity to the connector on the microbit. Having a site to organise and store the lesson instructions for the kids was a great idea, as we had a central location to put all of content. This also made it really easy to adapt and update as we went.

We did the project with five groups of about 45 learners, spending a full day with each group once a week. We completed three rotations throughout the year, so by the end of the final rotation, every learner in the school had gone through the project, This meant from one

I think blending two subjects together brings life and vibrancy to the subjects, as students see connections to the real world, and how design processes are everywhere. Their critical thinking skills were put to use and they became reflective to support the success of their own projects. This was a group project and we found that their teamwork improved over time, as they became more committed to the outcome and success of their team.

I have loved this project, despite tearing my hair out at times, seemingly unable to come up with viable solutions to electronics and component issues. I feel so much more confident now to teach robotics, understanding the inner workings of robots. This was not my background, despite being the specialist digital technology teacher here, I felt more comfortable with digital media content.

I think to run this project again would be highly beneficial, and a massive drawcard for our department going forward, engaging kids in real world STEM projects.